Walmart’s data plans painfully expensive, not meant for geeks

Walmart has announced its plan to get into the wireless business with very …

Walmart is getting into the wireless service business, but not in a way that will appeal to geeks or smartphone buffs. The company says that it will begin offering mobile plans, to run on T-Mobile's network, in order to "help families stay connected while saving money," and that the service will be sold exclusively in Walmart stores starting on September 20.

The plans do offer blindingly affordable "unlimited talk and text" plans. For only $45 per month, Walmart customers can get unlimited voice minutes plus unlimited texts per month without any kind of contract. That's at least $15 per month cheaper than T-Mobile's best contract-free unlimited talk and text plans.

A similar plan from AT&T costs $70 per month with a two-year contract, and Verizon costs almost $90 per month.

Is there a catch to Walmart's offerings? You bet. The available data plans are blindingly expensive, locking out much of the lucrative and quickly growing smartphone market. A single gigabyte of prepaid data through Walmart costs $40, which is quite steep compared to AT&T's 2GB for $25 per month, or T-Mobile's $30 per month for unlimited data.

The upside is that Walmart's data is shared by all of the lines on the account and carries over until it runs out. In a way, it's not surprising—Walmart has set its target on lower- to middle-income families who are still heavily dependent on affordable feature phones, so what would they possibly want with so much data anyway? If the majority of users have feature phones with limited Web capabilities, it makes sense to offer limited data that can be shared, and at a premium.

That being said, the company's announcement says that it does plan to offer Android phones and other with touchscreens, which shows that the company does have some plan to sell more Internet-capable devices. Those users will have a rude awakening when they try to price out data plans, though. Serious data hogs will undoubtedly stick to a carrier that is more dedicated to supporting smartphone users.

Every story I've read about this says the data price is horrible. I'd argue for a pre-paid data plan its not bad.

Most non-nerd iPhone/Android users I know use about 250-300MB/mo. So they're stuck using the $25/mo AT&T plan. With the $40/GB plan from Walmart, thats 3-4 months worth of usage. $40 vs $75-100 looks really good to me.

As long as WM allows them to only buy that $40 chunk 3-4 times per year then they're set!

I'd don't think I'd ever be caught dead with a wallyworld branded device; but is this the 1st plan to offer rollover data at a semi-reasonable price. If something like htis were to be offered by a respectable carrier I'd probably jump on it though. I don't have a need for 3g data access on a regular basis, and the difference between an $30/mo for a smartphone I could tether off of and paying for 5 or 10 days/year of hotel wifi yearly is too high to justify just an occasional backup for my normally reliable cable connection. Drop it down to something competitive and I'd be willing to spend a bit of money up front for a new phone/usb modem/mobile hotspot.

$45 for unlimited talk and text is a pretty good deal. I'm liking this a lot. The big question is can I get a smart phone without having to have a data plan? I just want to use WiFi. Paying an extra $30 smart phone tax like most carriers impose really bugs me. If I can get a smart phone and pay $45 a month for talk/text (no data) service I'll sign up quickly.

with data that rolls-over, i could actually be fine with that... use wifi when available, keep cellular data turned off when i don't need it and keep data pushing to a minimum, i could easily make a gigabyte of data last a couple months

This sounds really nice, actually. Seems like I should be able to use a T-Mobile Nexus One and get talk and text for $45? That would be perfect. I don't use much data, so a gig would probably last me about half a year.

I could easily make that last for 3-4 months- data rollover, and it's actual pay-what-you-use (way better than any of the monthly pay-what-you-think-you-will-use plans-but why don't the telcos offer that option?). Not a bad deal if you know how to manage it.

for 1/4 more I would go with TMobile. Been there for quite some time and doesn't jack with their customers like ATT. Heck, I get unlimited talk and 400 txt (I am no teen and send about 100 a month) for 54.00

Add my TZones that I have had for years....and my iPhone....and I am good to go for most things e-mail and web. Edge is horrible but I am in downtown Austin, TX alot so...I wifi it up.

$40 for 1 GB. What happens if you go over, which will inevitably happen since the data never runs out?

From what I've read, the data is prepaid, unlike the voice. If you run out of dollars, you just don't get any more data.

I'm not sure if you'll be able to activate non-Walmart phones. At least one article I've read says you can't unlock Walmart phones to other carriers, but does anyone know if I could take in my unlocked smart phone and get them to activate it on one of these plans?

That plan doesn't sound "painfully expensive", it sounds like a bargain: My wife and I use our phones for email, web and apps. Prior to getting my Galaxy S, we were using about 100Mb each per month with myTouch 3G's.(I used 500 in the month after upgrading). Since T-mobile's smartphone data plan is 30 dollars a month, at most, the Walmart plan is two months for $40 compared to $120 on T-mobile, and if my usage drops back down now that I'm not downloading so many shiny shiny apps, it could easily last 3-5 months, a saving of at least $200.

Cheap calls and texts is where it's at. As other people have already stated, the true nerds know exactly how to minimise cell data. No doubt, you even have a location based app that toggles WiFi/Cell that automates the process. Another thing, a true nerd wouldn't look down at people who shop at Wallmart. In fact, a true nerd is a low renter, as they minimise all other expenditure to maximise spending on the cool stuff. (pfft, food and shelter is for wannabe geeks! Get with it, losers!)

I really like the idea of rollover data. Let the wannabes soak up the gigabytes on their phone. (For the love of God why do some people equate the amount of data they download to the size of their cocks. I mean, do you rack up at a bar and impress the ladies that you download 8 gigabtyes of month on your freaking cellphone. No way, you shmooze over and say hey mind I take your picture. And then demonstrate your new x-ray app... Coool) And now you know why I like the rollover data plan. In and out of jail guys, I mark the restraining orders on Google maps.

Prepaid, I don't think it is bad. We finally got our first cell phone, a Blackberry 7130e on a prepaid plan. 5 cents/minute, 2 cents/text, 10 cents/mb. I bet in the 3 weeks we've had the phone we haven't spent more than $2 on data. The main reason is that it is used as a phone, not a computer. We are around computers all the time anyway, so why duplicate functionality you don't need to. On the other hand, the web pages use a minuscule amount of data as they are mobile versions. On the phone side of things, prepaid makes a lot of sense as we'll use less than $20, 400 minutes a month.

This actually sounds pretty good. Right now that market segment is dominated by the likes of MetroPCS whose network coverage is atrocious.

I imagine that they will not be subsidizing the phones though.

According to yahoo, they are; but not by very much; and the offered smartphone only is a relatively low end model that runs android 1.5 at present. An upgrade to 2.1 has been delayed from 2010Q2 to "late Q3/Q4".

Starting Monday, the chain plans to sell five phones, including a full-blown smart phone, the Motorola Cliq XT, which will cost $249. T-Mobile sells it for $329 without a contract, or gives it away to buyers who sign two-year contracts (with monthly fees that are higher than the no-contract option).

The cheapest phone for the service will be a simple Nokia phone for $35.

I mention this every time ARS runs a phone service plan article - prepaid cell phone and a Skype unlimited world plan are the way to go (for the budget minded). I figured my wife and I spend about $20 a month.

Walmart is not known for great deals. Their known for cheap prices. Just as you can get a cheaply made product at a cheap price does not mean its a good deal. It just allows people who can only afford that much to have it. I would suspect their phone plans will appeal to those same people. Their worried more about the price then the service.

I really like the rollover data idea. Like what those above have said, you can get a smartphone and just pay for 1gb, use it sparingly (since WiFi is everywhere) and call it good.

IMO, any data plan that charges a fee for a certain chunk of data should be required to rollover. You paid for it, why should it disappear? I mean really, either you're selling a chunk of something or you're selling a service.

I could easily make that last for 3-4 months- data rollover, and it's actual pay-what-you-use (way better than any of the monthly pay-what-you-think-you-will-use plans-but why don't the telcos offer that option?). Not a bad deal if you know how to manage it.

Totally agree. Up until the Netflix app debuted on the iPhone, I was using barely 200-300MB a month, despite push e-mail, random web surfing, some Pandora at the gym... 1GB of data would've lasted easily 2-3 months for me, if not longer some months, making it a huge bargain even at $40 per gig.

Sounds perfect except for the $45/month for text/talk. I'm currently spending $10-15/month on Tracfone. If Tracfone offered 1 GB/$40, ESPECIALLY if my wife and I could share, I'd be all over it (assuming they had a reasonably decent phone available).

$40 for 2-3 years of "just in case we need directions" coverage? I'm so there... Unfortunately, Walmart's not yet competitive on plans for infrequent callers..

I could easily make that last for 3-4 months- data rollover, and it's actual pay-what-you-use (way better than any of the monthly pay-what-you-think-you-will-use plans-but why don't the telcos offer that option?). Not a bad deal if you know how to manage it.

Exactly, ATT was bragging how their "average" customer only used 200MB per month anyway. Of course you PAY for 2, if you don't us em you lose um, and if you go over in one month you pay a similar upcharge for less of an increase that the Walmart plan. If you make the $40 plan last two whole months you are ahead of the ATT plan... and according to ATT, that's the more common case.

Unlimited phone and text is geared toward the walmart crowd... people that need a cheap phone for their kids. Everything is flat-rate or prepaid so you shouldn't have too many problems with "unforseen" charges. Hopefully you can block paid texts on these and I'll be lining up.

So I just looked on my iPhone 3GS summary screen, and I've used 280MB up and 1.7GB down since it was last reset, which according to the screen was "Never". My guess is that it was actually when 4.0 came out (I haven't bothered with 4.1 yet), a little over 3 months ago... and I use my phone a lot, and am only on Wifi at home. So $40 1GB actually sounds pretty damn good to me, and not "painfully expensive" at all. More like roughly half the monthly cost of ATT. Add my wife's 1st Gen EDGE iPhone to that pool and instead of paying $50 a month for data I'd be paying maybe $30. I pay ATT almost $200 a month for 2 iPhones, looks like I'd pay about $80 at Walmart.

Ditto everyone else, this could actually be quite good for geeks because we know how to minimize data usage.

Quote:

While there's no contract, Ailing said the phones will be "locked" to Wal-Mart Family Mobile, so they won't be usable on another network, or even under a T-Mobile-branded plan.

The phones are locked, but you should be able to pop out the SIM card and use it in an unlocked N1, right?

Yes. Any GSM cell phone that operates on the same frequencies as Tmobile will work so long as it is unlocked. Data settings may have to be manually programmed to get mobile internet to work but for the Ars crowd that should be technically simple enough. Voice and text should work without any modifications

qst330 wrote:

This reminds me of bottled water debates. It's all the same water.

Walmart probably does less branding than Verizon, AT&T, Sprint and the others combined. They also use the same towers. Actually they aren't tied down to some of them like the main guys are.

I am not the biggest Walmart fan but "hey" any body willing to take on the other guys is good for everybody.

Wow - it says Walmart somewhere on the phone... laughable. /sarcasm/

Yes and noCoverage isn't going to be the same. Tmobile will have roaming agreements with other GSM carriers that cover holes in their coverage. The walmart plan won't. They'll use the basic Tmobile coverage footprint and roaming agreements would be separate maybe even billed outside the plan costs.

Personally I think the MVNO's that use the Verizon network offer better coverage than this plan but they don't have the retail presence that Walmart does.

Interesting choice in T-Mobile. Take a ubiquitous retailer with stores in every two-bit town in America and pair them with a network that only covers highway corridors and major metropolitan areas. Yeah, this will turn out well.

I live in a small Mississippi town and only have service because I'm a few miles off the interstate. The rest is roaming, which the MVNO will not likely have access to, especially if they fail to offer any quad band phones.

I just have to wonder what the stores that are outside T-Mobile's reach will do with this service. Sell it anyway?

Four years ago, I visited the sleepy Mississippi Delta town of Cleveland and had only 850 MHz roaming at the time. Yet inside the local Super Wal-Mart, in the phone connection center? T-Mobile prepaid cards and phones. They also had prepaid Virgin Mobile (Sprint) phones, which to this day does not work there because of no Sprint network coverage.

I have to wonder how many people bought those phones on price and looks only to discover they'd have to drive 20-50 miles out of town to find a signal to activate them!

Even in my town, Wal-Mart could sell these but people will get a long distance number just like I have. In fact, my number is a Cleveland, MS number, meaning it's local to a town 50 miles from me. I don't think poor people here will cotton to that. Not to mention the fact that every Wal-Mart I go in, I lose my T-Mobile signal. What good is a Wal-Mart phone that doesn't work in Wal-Mart?

I was paying $60/month prepaid on AT&T for $30 airtime and unlimited data, no texts included. And that was for a feature phone with EDGE only, no 3G. (I won't get into how bad they throttled prepaid data here, but it was sub 56 kbps).

It wouldn't be so bad if carrier could distinguish 3G plans from EDGE plans and charge those of us who have older phones less, since we use less data. I don't want a smart phone and can't afford a really nice one, so why should I pay for speed I can't use?

I'm on T-Mobile now (GPRS only, no EDGE or 3G) and their feature phone data price is lower than smart phones. Much better. But there are 3G feature phones that can do a lot of downloading, so I am still getting ripped off. Oh well, it's still faster than ATT prepaid, when it works.

I'm with many of the other comments - this is actually a good price. It carries over until it runs out, which means that if you're like my wife and use < 200 MB/month, then this is a very cheap data plan. $40 will last her 5-6 months, meaning that data is only $8 or so per month for her. On her current AT&T plan, she's getting the same 200 MB/month for $15 per month. The Walmart plan is half as much.

It wasn't that long ago that Ars had an article on the new iPhone data tiers where many users said that 200 MB/month was plenty enough for them and they were happy to have the new $15 price tier because it would save them money. While there are certainly people that pump large amounts of data through their phones, many just want email and a little bit of data. Unlimited data plans are too expensive for these people.

I think this sounds pretty sweet. I use my smartphone for an occassional google maps, emails, a look into the metro timeline etc. so this is most likely the cheapest possible way to do this. And personally I love Walmart the only decent grocery shopping experience in the United States. (apart from Target).